Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Up north is the place to be when winter is coming to and end. After the good times in Lofoten my family came up north to meet me and we went inland to the Tamok hood and hooked up with my the grand old folks to spend some traditional Norwegian easter hygge times cabin style.

Fiching on the ice, cruising cros country with Hygge in the pulk, quicklunch-chocolate and oranges in the backpack, coffee on the thermos and hot dogs for BBQing is the way to go. Add some bluebird and it's picture perfect.

Sledding....

Max Hygge scoping pillow lines with papa and grandpa.

Heading to the hygge zone.

In the Zone with mama and grandma.

Quite coincidential Jarkko the wannabee Tamok-same from Finland was in the same hood again this year, taking his Arctix concept to another level, with the open heli powered Treeride World Championships as well as his invitatinal heli sessions. I got in on the treeride, as Howia and JM aka monkeyboy were heading out there early, called me up in the morning and said they had put me on the starting list. I came in seccond after beeing fastest on in the speed part but then not that smooth in the freeride part, where the conditions were a bit icy after it was getting a bit to late and the sun went down before I got to ride. Good fun anyway, and I got to join the heli session, at least for one day, since I did not want to miss too much Max Hygge time with the fam.

Ended up on the team with a couple of other Norwegian dirty bums that have been in the game for a while, Myking and Bryn. Stoke was definitely present and smiles were wide, Mykings maybe widest of all on his 2nd heli mission ever. Got to ski some good stuff, some steep and long stuff and some cruising, but there was no pow left when we got started, since it got warm to days before the heli arrived, unfortunately and a bit typical...

The Norwegian delegates, me, Sofish and Bryn

Sven does some nice heli parking this is on a ridge as wide as the skids.

... on top of this stuff. That is pretty steep, and way higher than it looks.

Mr Bryn is enjoying the last cruising run of the day. Sven Cruising in the background.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

As long as the weather is cooperating, north of the moral circle is the place to be. Then northern norway it is the most beutiful and best location in the whole world, for skiing, surfing, hygge and more. For almost thee weeks now, that has my reality.

Welcome to Lofoten!

Started off by flying into the Lofoten Islands at the end of a snowstorm as it was clearing and then stayed cold, sunny and calm for more than a week. Camp Lofoten was on, which is a Norrøna supported back country ski, surf and hygge event run by the wannabee sjøsame Freddy Gelly and backed up by the good times and good weather god of Manitu. It's accompagnied by good food and lodging at the Henningsvær Bryggehotell and a great crew of ugly stinkin mountain guides and blonde norwegian back country babes.

Sverre and Lars-Kristian on the ridge at Blåtind.

Photographer Sverre Hjørnevik hooked up azz usual as well as half local, half fisherman/half law student poser Håvard Ånesen with his snowboard and surfboard. As the mountains were stashed with pow and there was even some decent swells coming in we could not have anything but the best of times, again, in Lofoten. Add some sauna, hard core mølje eating, fernet and beers and you should be able to understand that sleeping could not be given the highest priority.

Some multisport bouldering and snowboarding action by the fjord.

We decided to steer away from the classic ski touring peaks this time, in order not to repeat ourselves every year, get to see some new terrain, mark off some new names on the map and maybe find some brand new epicness. This went both ways, as the classics are classics for a reason of course; they often have good snow and good efficient terrain for both the going up and going down. Wi did get a taste of some really cool new stuff, got some good shots and new epic views, but at the same time we rode a lot of shitty snow and fooled around a lot when we could have been cruisng more pow instead.

We topped out Blåtind, Håtind and Stornapptind, neither of which I have been to before and who are all clearly are stand-out mountains in their area. And in between we had some decent surf at Unstad. Finally, after a late night at the climbing cafe, me and Håvard scored an awesome couloir right around the corner from home base in Henningsvær. I had been looking at the think every time I'd passed on the way by and went op into the start of the neighbour coloir to check the snow, concluding that it could not be a better time to ski this narrow and steep thing. One of the nicest chute-rides I've ever gotten I think. Good snow, good view, good width, good steepness etc. = good times. Check the video: